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About this blog: I am President of Embarcadero Media's East Bay Division and the publisher of the Pleasanton Weekly, Dublin TriValley Views, San Ramon Express and Danville Express. As a 25-plus-year veteran of the media industry, I have experience... (More)

About this blog: I am President of Embarcadero Media's East Bay Division and the publisher of the Pleasanton Weekly, Dublin TriValley Views, San Ramon Express and Danville Express. As a 25-plus-year veteran of the media industry, I have experience in print, broadcast and digital media. In 2004, I left Illinois where I was Executive Editor / Associate Publisher of a group of 14 weekly newspapers and one daily belonging to what is now known as the Chicago Sun-Times Group, to move to Northern California to launch two newspapers and a radio station. To date I have launched eight weekly newspapers (one in Spanish), one daily newspaper, one monthly newspaper, one monthly news magazine, several news websites and an FM radio station. I joined Embarcadero Media in 2006 because of its focus on quality, community journalism and the entrepreneurial spirit of its staff and management team. I have a bachelor's degree in Communications and a master's degree in Business Administration and spend the little spare time I have teaching for University of Phoenix and with my three children, ages 25, 21 and 13. (Hide)

New column answers readers' questions

Uploaded: Jul 1, 2007

Newsflash! We are living in an ever-changing, evolving media climate. How we get our news, when we get our news and who provides our news has morphed into something completely different from what we knew five years ago.

"News consumers," which used to be called readers, and "news gatherers," which used to be called staffers, are finding this new information era somewhat confusing, sometimes frustrating and always challenging. These challenges, coupled with a few issues raised recently, led to the creation of this column; its purpose is to answer questions Pleasanton residents have about their newspaper and how it operates.

Have you ever wondered why the editors choose to cover one event but not another? Or why you never saw a report on the incident down the street, the one with all the police cars and people in handcuffs?

Last week, the Pleasanton Weekly's policy on identifying writers of Letters to the Editor was challenged during a City Council meeting. Anne Fox, chairwoman of the Pleasanton Planning Commission, submitted a letter to the editor and our editorial staff included her title when it was published. This is a standard policy. We would do the same if the superintendent of schools, chamber president or mayor wrote a letter to the editor. Individuals, especially those in public positions, cannot expect detachment from their titles by simply omitting it.

As journalists, we are committed to seeking the truth and reporting it as fully as possible. Just as we are obligated to correct an error or omission on our part, we are obligated to withhold, correct or note errors or omissions on the part of letter writers if we are aware of them. We would not publish something we knew was not factual. Omitting the fact that the writer of that particular letter to the editor was in fact the chairperson of the planning commission would have been a known error of omission.

I welcome your comments and questions about the Pleasanton Weekly, its Web site, the coverage and how the newspaper operates, and will tackle these and other issues weekly.

Gina Channell-Allen, a 20-year journalism veteran, is the president of the East Bay division of Embarcadero Publishing Company, president of the Pleasanton Weekly and publisher of the Danville Weekly. Send questions to gallen@pleasantonweekly.com.